Anatomy of the W3C Design Tokens Community Group (DTCG) Spec

To prevent vendor lock-in between Figma, Token Studio, and code compilers, the W3C DTCG established a standardized JSON format:

{
  "color": {
    "interactive": {
      "primary": {
        "$value": "#0066cc",
        "$type": "color",
        "$description": "Used for primary call-to-action buttons and focused inputs"
      }
    }
  },
  "space": {
    "md": {
      "$value": "16px",
      "$type": "dimension"
    }
  }
}

Using $value, $type, and $description enables automated linters to validate that color values are valid hex/OKLCH and dimension tokens use valid spatial units.